Easy And Simple Ways To Fend Off Cyber Criminals

Privacy has always been something that humans have craved for. In the bedroom, the bathroom and sometimes even in the library. But as we have evolved and developed our living standards the need for privacy has also increased. Now there is a need to make sure that when you finish using the family computer at your house, you have to log out of the computer before someone comes and snoops into your private messages.

Privacy has been elevated to a whole new level. The importance of online privacy has been highlighted many times before. Instances in particular include the hacking of celebrity’s iCloud accounts on Apple devices. Or rather the Ashley Madison case when a sizeable number of people were implicated.

In light of all of these instances here are some tips to keep your online presence as private as possible.

Well, first and foremost you have to make sure that the website you are on is safe. Some websites are just there to trick you and harvest your information from you. Most websites nowadays have a feature that allows you to check if the website is trusted or not. There is usually a colour change (to green most times) on the left side of the location bar to verify the legitimacy of the website. This feature is available on several internet browsers like the Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Internet Explorer amongst others.

DO NOT SHARE EVERYTHING ONLINE

If you are one of those people who are always anxious and nervous, then sharing all of your details on social media platforms might not be the best idea. There is no harm in letting people know your birthdate but to go as far as sharing private number like credit card numbers, bank account numbers and in most cases in the US sharing things like social security numbers. This one merely banks on how safe you want to be online because you can’t share personal info with someone you don’t know.

PUT YOUR BROWSER ON PRIVATE

This is one of the best things because as soon as you finish you can switch off your computer and no one will be able to see your history. Another good thing is that sites that usually track your activity like Facebook, Google and Twitter so that they can use the information to give you tailored ads won’t be able to do that. Now there are many ways to go private browsing.

The most popular one and the easiest is to press the go private button on your browser e.g. Safari. Google Chrome calls it going incognito. More advanced ways to go private are to use Virtual Private Network VPN’s or The Onion Router commonly known as Tor. Tor directs Internet traffic through several computers encrypting data along the way which distort browsing habits. VPN does on the other hand mask your IP address so in essence your location is untraceable.

ENCRYPTION OF DATA

Speaking in code is something that has been done a lot in the past. Be it in war, in class or sometimes even toilets. It allows us to shift out the third man and make sure that the conversation is understood by only two people. Encrypting our data online could also be a way we could implement to protect our data.

If you suspect that someone might be looking for your messages or private documents online, you can choose to encrypt your data. Scrambling and unscrambling of messages can be done by extensions on browsers. Such extensions would be the PGP (Pretty Good Privacy).

PUT STRONGER PASSWORDS

Setting up tougher passwords is also must. Caution has to be taken not to put obvious passwords related to you. If you do want to put passwords that you will remember fairly well you can always add numbers at the end of the person’s name.

Security questions can also be used by hackers to enter your accounts. Sometimes it is advisable to lie on the security question. When they ask you what your favourite soccer team is instead of Manchester United, say a small team that is in your local division. That way you limit the risk of them guessing your favourite team.

USE TWO FACTOR AUTHENTICATION SYSTEM

Another good thing to do is to use the two-factor authentication systems. This only means there are two doors to open for you to enter your account. It’s usually used on sites like Facebook, Apple ID, Twitter, etc. it might be time-consuming yes but it’s for the better of your privacy.

PROACTION

Staying proactive is the last thing on my list. You might implement all of these suggestions I mentioned but it won’t be long before the vulnerability is discovered in any of the security measures there now. So keep up to date with it all.